Susan Tapert/University of California, San Diego
The images above show the brain activity of a 15-year-old nondrinker, top, and a drinker, bottom.
Posted on 07/03/2006 10:16:26 PM PDT by neverdem
In another experiment, published this year in the journal Neuroscience, Dr. Crews found that even a single high dose of alcohol temporarily prevented the creation of new nerve cells from progenitor stem cells in the forebrain that appear to be involved in brain development.
The damage, far more serious in adolescent rats than in adult rats, began at a level equivalent to two drinks in humans and increased steadily as the dosage was increased to the equivalent of 10 beers, when it stopped the production of almost all new nerve cells.
Dr. Crews added, however, that adult alcoholics who stop drinking are known to recover cognitive function over time.
The same may hold true for hard-drinking teenagers. In 1998, Sandra Brown and Susan Tapert, clinical psychologists at the University of California, San Diego, and at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center there, found that 15-to-16-year-olds who said they had been drunk at least 100 times performed significantly more poorly than their matched nondrinking peers on tests of verbal and nonverbal memory.
The teenagers, who were sober during the testing, had been drunk an average of 750 times in the course of their young lives.
"Heavy alcohol involvement during adolescence is associated with cognitive deficits that worsen as drinking continues into late adolescence and young adulthood," Dr. Tapert said.
Two M.R.I. scan studies, one conducted by Dr. Tapert, have found that hard-drinking teenagers had significantly smaller hippocampi than their sober counterparts. But it is also possible, the researchers said, that the heavy drinkers had smaller hippocampi even before they started to drink.
Teenagers who drink heavily may also use their brains differently to make up for subtle neurological damage, Dr. Tapert said. A study using functional M.R.I. scans, published in 2004, found that alcohol-abusing teenagers who were given a spatial test showed...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I saved my beer drinking for college.
There's a little info on stem cells.
"even a single high dose of alcohol temporarily prevented the creation of new nerve cells from progenitor stem cells in the forebrain that appear to be involved in brain development."
Thanks for posting the article and the ping.
Thanks for the information. Though I despise the Times, even a broke clock is right twice a day.
I only skimmed the article - how do they manage to blame President Bush?
They didn't.
Call Homeland Security* - pod people have captured the New York Times.
[*They'll want to reduce the threat level.]
Another bold step towards neoprohibitionism. Paved with BS, just like all of the rest.
Only this time, it's "For The Children".
Parents? Hello? Hello?
Sad thing is the whole Carrie Nation Agenda de-legitimizes what would otherwise be sound research.
"significantly more poorly"?
I wonder how much drinking Katy did as a teen.
How "significantly more harder" would it have been for her to say "significantly worse"?
Hey, cut her a little Hair of the Dog: it's the NYT, after all. They've had a rough go lately.
/s
My wife had not seen this kid for a couple years. He doesn't look anything like what he did 2 years ago. The alcoholic behavior has really pickled him.
Sick of insurers, psychiatrists opt out of the system full, 'Pay in full, please'
Docs: Comatose Man's Brain Rewired Itself (semantics on parade)
Mute 19 Years, He Helps Reveal Brain's Mysteries Terrorist Tip Sheet's printer friendly page
Possible axonal regrowth in late recovery from the minimally conscious state Complete article from Schiff et al., or why I still read the perfidious NY Times. They linked the abstract, which links the free, open access article.
FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list. Anyone can post any unposted link as they see fit.
Thanks for the ping and the links. Interesting.
How much noise do you have to make in a house to bug the neighbors? They were too dumb to shut all the windows, I guess.
"Another bold step towards neoprohibitionism. Paved with BS, just like all of the rest."
From Wisconsin, started drinking beer at age 15. Went to Annapolis, Navy pilot, etc...etc....This is pure BS......
Really? So, children should be allowed to dring as much as they want because you don't think alcohol kills or even retards the growth of brain cells? I bet you are a "legalize pot" advocate, too, right?
Yeah, I remember this lecture after I joined the navy. 18 year-old recruits wanted to know why they were old enough to fight but not old enough to drink a beer. They pawned this BS on us. Nobody was buying it.
Funny, when my ship pulled in to Jebal Ali, the drinking age suddenly became 18. Young sailors could imbibe to their heart's delight --an infraction that would have had them sent to Mast back in Pensacola, Florida.
A few months ago there was a teenage party here that ended up with three of them dead. A few weeks ago there was another teen party with three stabbed. Both times the parents were out of town, and each house had over 100 kids. For the DARE program to possibly work, it would have to extend through 12th grade. Some of these kids are lucky to come out of their teen years alive.
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